How did it start?

We had been going to Reading Terminal Market consistently for a few years, but we always went to the Rib Stand for lunch. Don't get me wrong, the reason we kept going back was that the Rib Stand is excellent. The Boneless Rib sandwich, cheese, hot sauce (not really hot), and two sides. I always go double mac & cheese, but potato wedges and green beans are available. If you can finish the you are well satisfied.

But one day, Bone Marrow observed that there may be other places within the market that may be worth a try. So we set ourselves a challenge, to eat at all the restaurants.

We walked around the market and determined which places we could eat lunch and which places were really just butchers, poultry, seafood, and vegetables. We were looking for prepared food and boy did we find it. Fifty something places to try. At the moment we are about half way through, and we have tried the full range. We have 3 five asterisks (star, a story for another time) places, one half asterisk, and many in between. We have had the surprisingly good, the disappointing and the ones that didn't live up to their reputation.

We started at the end of June and I always had it in my mind that we would finish it by the end of the year. After only completing a couple in June, none in July and only a few in August the task looked impossible. We got back on track in September and really picked it up in October and November, and that is where we are now.

At one stage I was so focused on completely the task that the end became more important than the experience. In a moment of true clarity T-Bone reminded us that by rushing and cutting corners we were not doing the challenge justice. We took a step back and decided that a more realistic time frame was to finish by Wing Bowl. Which means the Friday before SuperBowl. Wing Bowl is another post all together but is a great day enjoyed by many. I even offered T-Bone a new nick name as Yoda, but he refused. It is a good lesson that a brief moment of being lucid doesn't make one Yoda.

Now that you have the background we will visit many of the establishments and our comments over the coming posts.